LONDON – Britain’s Vodafone (NASDAQ: VOD) said it sold a further 10% stake in Vantage Towers for 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion), bringing its ownership in a group that controls European mobile phone masts down to its intended level with infrastructure investors.
The stake sale is the final part of a deal announced in 2022 when Vodafone said it would sell a chunk of its Germany-based masts company to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and KKR (NYSE: KKR) to raise proceeds to reduce its debt.
On Monday, Vodafone (NASDAQ: VOD) said that the 1.3 billion euros from the latest sale took total proceeds from the Vantage Towers sale to 6.6 billion euros.
Oak Holdings, the partnership that co-controls Vantage Towers, bought the 10% stake, and following the deal, Vodafone said Oak Holdings owns 89.3% of Vantage Towers, with Vodafone’s effective ownership at 44.7%.
The proceeds from the latest sale would cut net debt by 0.1x, in line with Vodafone’s target of operating in the lower half of its 2.25x – 2.75x leverage range, the company said.
($1 = 0.9190 euros)
(Source: ReutersReuters)
